Changing Language and Locale Formats

A common problem: Using a file created in an other country. How to change the locale (Field Index, Calendar Item Names, Decimal Separators, Currency, etc.) to match local reqirements.

What is involved

The original FileMaker file

A Clone of the original file

The Settings of the Machine where the conversion takes place

What will be changed?

The Language of text field indices

The Month, Day, and Quarter names (long and abbreviated)

The Date format (separator, month, day, year order)

The Time format (separator, am and pm strings, 12/24 hour format)

The Number format (Decimal and Thousands separators)

The Currency Symbol

and maybe more (wrote this from the top of my head)

What will NOT be changed?

All definitions applied individually to any layout item will remain unchanged.

What Happens when a File is Cloned?

It is a widely spread wrong assumption that the act of cloning a file would apply the changes. Fact is (and FMDiff users can easily verify this) that cloning removes all locale information from a file.

As soon as time permits i will provide a complete list of what else will be removed by cloning - it is a lot more than just the locale information. (Think of all the data, for example.)

When a Clone is opened for the First Time...

... FileMaker uses the settings of the current machine and stores them permanently within the Clone. You can only change these by cloning the file again.

This means, if your solution is provisioned to start out as a Clone, i.e. has scripts to import required data from resources delivered with the solution - like graphics or initial data as preferences - you could ship your solution out to the world as Clone and expect it to perfectly adapt one of the FileMaker supported languages and the locale settings of the end user's machine.

What exactly determines the new formats?

The settings of the machine where the file is opened for the first time.
It is therefor very important to check that all the settings above match the customer's requirements. If you have your own preferences, like using an ISO date, but your customer prefers something else, you have to change these settings on your machine first.

A Step by Step Guide

Create a new folder to hold the cloned files

Clone all the solution files and save them into the clones folder under the original name.

Close the original files. (FileMaker 11 allows cloning without opening files as Recover option)

Make sure your machine is set to the required locale

Open the clones in the clones folder

Import every table into the clones.

The files in the clones folder have now the settings of your machine. Again: definitions applied individually at any layout item will remain unchanged.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me.

Examples are provided "AS IS" without warranties of any kind. Use at your own risk.